Promise
by BreadLoaf
Summary: It promised me everything. Happiness, intelligence, friends and wealth. All for a few seemingly simple tasks. I knew I should have known it was too good to be true. By then though, it would have already been too late. I fell into has clutches. I fell to the point of no return. Rated T for dark moments. Contains an OC!


**Promise**

**Chapter 1: Maybe a friend?**

My life has no purpose. My parents didn't care about me, no one cared about me. At my school, Kadic Academy, I had no friends. The teachers hated me. I had done nothing wrong. All the other students would move away from me when I was nearby. The worst thing was that a group of four students that always gave me sympathetic looks. They pitied me, and I _hated _it.

My grades were good, I got A's in pretty much all subjects, and sport on the other hand wasn't as good. The gym teacher always said that I could be better if I tried, but I could tell by his eyes that he was lying to me.

There is one fortunate thing about me though: I could read people like they were open books. If they lied to me, I knew. If they showed fake emotions around each other, I knew. I sometimes questioned myself if this was the reason why people hated me, because I could see straight through them, but again I knew I was joking myself for thinking that. That in itself is another trait of me: I was sceptical about everything.

I have never bullied anyone in my life, and if I did, I would regret it and amend my ways. If anyone had ever tried to approach me or attempt to befriend me, I would let them into my life. I wanted to have someone I could always confide in, someone who I could trust beyond anyone else. Over the past ten years, no-one did.

My name is Arty Harvard, I am fourteen years old. I have light brown hair and very dark brown eyes. I stand at five foot ten inches tall with a thin build. The most important thing about me though is that I am schizophrenic.

I wasn't born with schizophrenia; I don't even think anyone is. But about the age of thirteen, a week after we moved to Paris and I went to Kadic, a voice started talking in my head. It was a kind voice, and often floated in through the thin barriers of my dream world while I was sleeping, it comforted me. I couldn't tell whether the voice was male or female, but it was more a monotonous mix of the two.

I didn't know whether or not it was something that happened at Kadic that triggered the voice. The only thing that did happen on the same day it started was the day that a random student with weird blonde and purple hair came to the school and I didn't think that was the cause. Eventually, I marked as the fact that I was just randomly struck with it. I was diagnosed one night when a teacher started to hear me one night, sitting up and talking to myself. That teacher, Jim Morales, was concerned and immediately took me to the nurse's office and that was where she recognized the symptoms and immediately sent me to the local hospital. They were the ones to diagnose me with the condition.

Learning the news of the event didn't upset me, but my parents were scared, why would they want a schizophrenic for a child? Answer: There was none. Somehow, the news spread around Kadic like wildfire, and any acquaintances I had made by then left me to myself faster than a bullet flew from a gun. The voice didn't though; it came and went which was nice. It kept me knowing that I wouldn't always be alone, and that it would try and return every night to talk to me. Only last week did my curiosity get the better of me, and I asked my newfound friend whether or not it had a name. It said just to call itself XANA. It was a strange name but I didn't question it. Another week went by and here I am, talking to XANA again. Except this time, it was different.

I was dreaming of a familiar place. A forest made of flat green pathways and tree trunks that stretched from the sea below to the yellow sky above. I was sitting by a thick tree staring at a tall, circular object which had a faint blue mist swirling around it. The forest was my favourite place to dream about, alongside the desert, the icy plateaus and the mountains.

As I had expected, "XANA" began to talk to me, in its soft voice which comforted me. It used my actual name, Arthur, which was fine by me but I do sometimes wish that it called me Arty.

"_Greetings Arthur, how are you this night."_

"Fine, thanks. You?"

"_Unsatisfied."_

"Really, why?"

"_Well, frustration is getting to me, every single time I try to begin a project, it always fails. So I am here tonight, for the first time, to ask you for help."_

This was new; XANA had never asked me for help, it was so individual. It's weird, my thinking of this, since XANA was just a voice in my mind. I always thought of it as an actual person, just without a body. It helped me with some things in class, sometimes giving me answers to quizzes, but very rarely. I owed it a favour, despite the fact that I was hosting it in my head, so I agreed.

"How can I help?"

"_Well, let us say that in your mind there is another world and that I live in this world..."_

Made sense so far, it would need some sort of home rather than a dark area.

"Yeah, sounds interesting. What do you do in this world?"

"_I live like you, and I have goals like you Arthur."_

"What goals?"

"_To defeat my enemies, except they constantly overcome me. While I cannot die, I can be weakened, and that is what my enemies do. They weaken me."_

"Then how can I help?"

"_I have a plan, but I cannot put it into action yet, it will take time. But you can help me prepare for it. Befriend a group of people. They are the ones that pity you, get to know them, they are nicer than you may think."_

Anger flooded my system, make friends with _them_! They constantly looked at me, like I had no hope. How would he know that they are nice people anyway? He was a voice in my head.

"Who made you decide whether they are nice or not, huh?"

"_We are two personalities in one mind, with this, it is easier to judge people, and you__** can**__ read people, can you not? So why don't you read them? Either way, it is your choice, Arthur."_

XANA's voice faded away. I fell into blackness...

* * *

I woke up, yawned, and began to do my morning routine: Shower, clean teeth, dressed and headed down to the cafeteria for breakfast. After Rosa served me some hot porridge and gave me a smile, I turned around to face the tables and decide where I would be sitting. People didn't mind me sitting at the same table as them, but preferred that I didn't sit right next to them, which was understandable. They wouldn't want a "mental freak", in a close proximity to them, _would they?_

I took a deep breath and cooled my anger, after a few seconds, I began to absent-mindedly move to a nearby table, but realised it was full. Blinking, I turned and looked for another table, unfortunately, the only remaining table which wasn't full was the one occupied by the last four people I would want to sit with (not counting Sissi and her cronies).

Weighing up the options in my mind, which was either sitting with them or sitting on the floor looking like an idiot, I chose to sit with them. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad, as long as they didn't look at me with that infuriating sympathy. They didn't notice me coming as I walked over to them, only looking up from their conversation when I spoke.

"Do you guys mind if I sit here?" I asked.

I watched their reaction with mild amusement. The one I was standing closest to, the blonde with glasses, jumped and whipped his head around quickly. The other blonde boy with the stupid hairstyle and the purple clothes saw me and his eyes widened before beginning to stare at the floor. The third and last boy shot me a few furtive glances, before continuing to eat his meal.

The only girl there, though, had a different reaction than the boys. She also looked at me with wide eyes, before smiling and saying.

"It's Arty, isn't it? Arty Harvard?"

I was unsure how to respond, was she being nice or just luring me in before hurting my feelings. I hoped that it was the first, and replied "Yes, and you are...?"

At this point the three boys at the table were looking between me and the girl, wondering what was going on. The girl in question didn't seem swayed at all by her friends looks and continued talking to me.

"I'm Yumi, Yumi Ishiyama." she said and pulled back a chair next to her "You're welcome to join us!"

I let a small smile appear on my face before I moved past the blonde in glasses and sat down next to her. Maybe I could get to like these people after all...

* * *

After I had begun to eat my breakfast, all previous conversations going on at the table had ceased, and upon looking up I saw that I was getting very strange looks from said tables members, especially from the brunette sitting across from me. I didn't want to be rude and confront him about it, so I decided to start a conversation. "So, err, what is your name?" I asked, as polite as I could.

He looked up at me and gave me a look which plainly said _"I would rather you didn't talk to me."_ and _"Why do you want to know?" _Nevertheless, he gave a small grunt and answered shortly "Ulrich Stern."

While he could have been a bit more polite about it, at least he responded. But really, it's not liked I tried to hurt him or anything. Well, at least from my perspective. I gave a small sigh before attempting to make the conversation a bit less hostile than it was now. "Well, I'm Arty as you already know. Short for Arthur, but just call me Arty anyways."

When Ulrich grunted again I saw him wince in pain and give Yumi a glare. It was obvious that Yumi had kicked him under the table, but didn't keep it subtle enough that I wouldn't notice. This annoyed me and made me feel a bit more grateful towards Yumi at the same time because while she did try to make Ulrich be a bit nicer to me, it annoyed me that he had to be forced to do it.

Either way, after a few more glares were exchanged between Ulrich and Yumi, Ulrich sat up a bit more and sent a half-smile in my direction. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Arty." He said, and it sounded genuine.

The whole table once again fell into silence after I made an acquaintance with Ulrich. I didn't know whether it was just because it was me or they were talking about a secret that they didn't want anyone to know about. I was expecting the former, they obviously knew I was a schizo, what was I meant to think? That they actually wanted to talk to me?

Surprisingly, the boy with the blonde spiked hair spoke up "Anyways, seeing as Ulrich wouldn't introduce us, I'll take it from here. I'm Odd Della Robbia and this here" he gestured to the other blonde "is Jeremie Belpois, the smartest kid in the school. It's nice to meet you!"

Jeremie looked up from his meal when his name was said, wide-eyed. He looked at me and gave a small wave before returning to his own porridge. I smirked at him and then looked at the newly acquainted Odd, "Well, as you know, I'm Arty. Nice to meet you, too."

Odd grinned "You're in the same classes as me, right?"

I nodded, "Yeah, why?"

"Want to sit with us?"

Jeremie and Ulrich's head shot up from their meals and looked at Odd, shocked. I was also shocked, no-one had ever asked me if I wanted to sit with them since I became schizophrenic. "Uh, sure. Thanks."

"Sweet." Odd said, before spotting my unfinished breakfast. "Uh, are you gonna be eating that."

I grinned before sliding the bowl over the table. Odd clapped his hands happily, then grabbed his spoon and started eating.

Odd tried to say something with his mouth full of porridge "Finks fur dat."

"In English, Odd?" Ulrich said.

Odd swallowed "I said, thanks for that."

"You're welcome" I replied before the bell signalling the morning classes rung loudly throughout the cafeteria.

Jeremie stood up quickly, following shortly after by Yumi. "See you guys at lunch." Yumi said whilst walking out of the room.

I stood up and grabbed my bag which was beside me. Ulrich and Jeremie were already walking out to our first class, Maths, but I decided to wait behind for Odd. Once he finished, we both left for class as well.

Just as we left the cafeteria, Odd spoke "What do you call a fly without wings?"

_Like I haven't heard that one before. _I thought, before answering "A walk."

The smile left Odd face, "I need to think of some better jokes." This made me laugh a little bit.

Odd started a jog to the class "C'mon, you can help me understand what Sohcahtoa means." He laughed.

_Did I just make a friend? _I thought to myself as we walked through the doors to the class.

**A/N Thanks for reading my new story. If you liked it(or didn't), review! I know, I have an OC. I intend for character development to be good and stuff, but that might mean I have to make a pairing. So, if you want me to pair Arty with someone, let me know. ****Also, if you are unsure of the plot, don't worry, _all will be revealed in time._**


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